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Hi all,
I am new here and new to program trading but I am a seasoned trader.
I wanted to "pay it forward" and offer the best advice I can after many years experience.

1 - trading is a great way to build wealth, but a terrible way to make a living. If I could do it all over again I would have never tried to be "pro" and just traded on the side while I built up my account. Pulling money from your account every month creates too much pressure that leads to scared money, overtrading etc. Once you have your bankroll and you have been making it happen for a year or two then go ahead and quit your job and pay yourself quarterly or whatever, but do not start there.

2 - Read the market, not the charts. What I mean by this is that when you develop your model, focus on understanding why your trades work the way they do. If you do not understand the why, then a simple change in participation will blow up your model and you will not know how to adjust to the new conditions.

3 - Follow the big money. Think about it this way. Generally speaking, 1/3 of the market is retail. That is mostly money that is being suckered to help make small moves happen, lots of scared money trying to be scalpers etc. The next 3rd is pools, CTA's etc. These are the fee collectors, many of which are losers on balance and are mostly trading the hourly or daily charts. These guys trade big positions even though many of them are not really that good, they just are high on OPM. The last 3rd is the institutions, the true whales. This is a very small group that have plans , outlooks and agendas that spread over years. They may not be able to simply push a button and make markets go up and down, but they can place orders large enough and in a sequence that can take out the little guys and enough of the fund guys to move their agendas forward. The way I see it, our goal is to ride on the waves that these whales make.

I can say that I personally spent many, many years to reach this level understanding. It all may sound simple, but do not discount it. If you apply these ideas, you will be on your way.